Proposed Canon

The Special that allows a Doombat to share information with a warlord has a range of 20 (or unlimited via a Thinkamancer)

Doombats have a point on their wings which they cannot scratch if it itches. LIAB Text 5

Doombats are one type of flying unit included in Prince Ansom's coalition against Stanley. Individually, Doombats are relatively weak in combatErf-b1-p113; however, they are very useful for scouting, and they can mass in a stack far above the usual eight-unit limit. It appears to cause Vinny distress (mental and/or emotional) to "watch" while one of the bats is croaked in combat.Erf-b1-p056 The Royal Crown Coalition uses the Doombats provided by Count Vinny Doombats as short recon throughout the story, but only so long as Vinny is present with the RCC.

A scouting bat discovered the incoming raids against Ansom's siege units, and additional bats mapped out a ring of dwagons that had apparently been deployed as a defensive formation for the wounded raiders. In each case, the bat was lost after encountering the enemy, being no match for a single dwagon, much less a stack.

After a force of forest units led by Ansom broke into the dwagon ring, a bat was sent into the protected center hex of the ring, and found it to be empty. Ansom did not consider this finding to be final, and went to see for himself. Wanda Firebaugh speculated that he believed that the center hex contained veiled units. These events indicate one limitation on doombats' scouting ability (they are apparently more susceptible to deception by veiling than a high-levelwarlord such as Ansom).

They apparently serve as a screen for warlords; willingly or unwillingly taking arrows for Caesar Borgata in Chocula. They pop naturally and can be tamed, as well as popping in Transylvito held cities. The only tamed one shown was albino, or possibly just depicted as such to be visible against Vinny's shirt.

Known Users

Real World References

One of the few named doombats, Bat 21, was lost when Parson first sent dwagons to selectively attack the Royal Coalition column, shown on TBFGK 49. This may be a reference to the book Bat-21, regarding the downing of an electronic intelligence aircraft during the Vietnam War, although the book is about the survival of the pilot.

Speculation

Transylvitian flying warlords can carry doombats in their capes and may thus serve as a sort of "carrier," effectively extending the operational range of doombats.Erf-b1.5-p010